I call this sub-series “Forgotten writers” for a reason, which is, of course, that these writers have been forgotten. But some, dare I say, were more forgotten than others. Mina Gray is one of these. It has taken significant research to uncover even some basic life information for her. There are no entries for her in any of the usual sources, except AustLit, and the entry there was minimal, despite their having several works listed for her. (It has been somewhat expanded now, due to our providing some specific life details). This post, like most of my recent Forgotten Writers posts, is closely based on the one I posted on AWW.
Mina Gray
The thing about Mina Gray is that she was published across nearly three decades, in some of our more major publications, particularly The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Women’s Weekly, but seems to have received little recognition for this achievement. So, where to start? Given the paucity of information on the internet, the logical place was AWW and our Stories from online archives listings. The 1920s Stories page includes a poem by Mina Gray, born circa 1917. Titled “An Australian Morn”, the poem was published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 16 November 1929, making Mina Gray 12 years old, if our circa date is correct. It took some digging but I eventually found, via find-a-grave, a gravestone for her at the Glenmorus Memorial Gardens in Albury cemetery. It gave her dates as born 8 May 1917, died 8 March 1997. So, this confirmed her birthdate and authenticated her age for that poem.
I’ll come back to that soon. First, a little more about the research journey. Mina Gray appears again in our 1930s A-L Stories page, with eight poems published between 1930 and 1936. For our 1940s page, our archives creator, Elizabeth Lhuede, had not only added over twenty poems – plus, now, some short stories – but also that her married name was Mrs Alfred Leslie Bingham. In our 1950s page, Elizabeth added that Mina had married Alfred Leslie Bingham in 1954, and that it appeared that she had “previously been engaged to a Captain Anton John Gunnarsson (M.N.) of Sweden in 1943”.
All that’s interesting, but potentially more useful is that the engagement announcement adds some extra information. It starts, “The Engagement is announced of Mina Phyllis Gray, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Gray, of England and Arncliffe…” So, it suggests that her parents came to Australia from England, and that Mina was probably living in Arncliffe, Sydney, in 1943. Where Mina was born, we don’t know as we haven’t found a birth notice (yet). She was clearly an only daughter, and possibly an only child, but we can’t assume that. What happened to that war-time engagement we don’t know either, because it appears she didn’t marry Captain Anton. She was buried, as I’ve said, in Albury. When did she go there (which presumably she did)?
It does, however, appear that she stopped writing upon her marriage as I can find nothing published under either her married or maiden name, after 1954. Trove did produce one intriguing article published in The Proserpine Herald on 9 April 1054. It explains that “a visitors’ register at a Whitsunday Island Tourist Resort contains a wealth of information which seldom reaches the public” and that Palm Bay Long Island “has such a book, which contains many interesting comments of the beauty of the area”. It continues:
Two more recent visitors to this resort were Mr. and Mrs. Les. Bingham, of Bondi, New South Wales Mr. Bingham is a freelance journalist, and Mrs Bingham, who writes under maiden name, Mina Gray, has had many articles published in various journals and magazines.
The article then shares a poem Mina Gray wrote about the resort in the visitor’s book, followed by some words from her husband. This poem is the last “published” work of hers we’ve found to date. Was this trip their honeymoon – and this poem her writing swansong? Did they have children? Their gravestones don’t indicate so. I don’t know how much more we can find out about her life, though there might be more in Albury’s local historical records.
Whatever, I believe Mina Gray is a mystery worth further investigation, given the length and breadth of her writing career, and its apparent sudden end. What we know so far, besides those life dates I’ve given, is that she was first published in The Sydney Morning Herald in 1929 as a 12-year old, and had around 10 poems published in that paper between then and 1936, when she would have been 19. Then there appears to be a gap in publication of around 8 years until 1944. During this time the war happened and that apparently failed 1943 engagement to Anton Gunnarsson. But, in 1944, she reappears with two short stories in The Australian Women’s Weekly. From here until 1954, when she married and appears to have stopped writing, she had over 40 poems published in The Sydney Morning Herald, and eight or more short stories published, mostly in The Australian Women’s Weekly, but also in The Sun, The World’s News and Western Mail. This is a decent-sized body of work, and from my random sampling, the poems in particular range across issues, and vary in form and style.
For now, though, if we ever think that a writer’s work tells us something about their lives, the poem “The sane” could be enlightening. It was written in January 1954, the year she was married. It is tempting to think that it was written about herself and that its final lines address Les. A love poem perhaps? The poet writes first person, and speaks of hiding her imaginative life “So that they will not turn suspicious eyes”, but ends with:
Although your face too
Smiles at me behind the hood
Of iron conformity, I know
Your eyes have seen the witches in the wood.
You too disdain
The Sane!
On AWW, I posted an excerpt of her short story “Glass lady”, which was published in The Australian Women’s Weekly in 1946. On the surface, it looks like a romantic postwar story about a soldier returning to his wife whose life had moved in different directions. And its conclusion is romantic, as would be expected in a women’s magazine of the time, but there are hints of something more nuanced and complex in the couple’s developing relationship. For this and other reasons, I will return.
Sources
Family Notices, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 1943, p. 6 [Accessed: 27 July 27 2026]
Mina Gray, in AustLit [Last accessed: 4 August 2026]
Mina Gray, “Glass lady“, in The Australian Women’s Weekly, 19 January 1946 [Accessed: 4 August 2026]
Mina Gray, “The sane“, in The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1954, p. 10 [Accessed: 5 August 2026]
“A tribute to Palm Bay“, The Proserpine Guardian, 9 April 1954, p. 4 [Accessed: 27 July 2026]
Other sources are linked in the article.
Well that’s a cliff hanger WH! ~ ‘For this and other reasons I will return.’ Well done on your bio research. It’s great that so much of her work was published. I wonder what inspired her writings and if they were spontaneous or considered and developed over time? It’s frustrating that her work vanished from public view after her marriage. She died on a landmark date of International Women’s Day.
Good catch Mary re her death. I plan to come back to her because I have some further info including more from her own writings.
That’s fascinating, Sue. Those lines from her poem are a spectacular way of whetting outr appetites for more.
Thanks Jonathan … they really do don’t they.
Not sure I have ever mentioned this but one of my past times is researching history… I did a really quick look and..
She is the daughter of Alfred and Mina Gray – she was living in Hopetoun Avenue in 1933 (16 years) according to the electoral roll, then in 1934 at 419 Military Road, Mosman, and then in 1935 they have moved to 821 Pacific Hwy, Atarmon. Young Mina is still not on the list, but I think it is likely your family as in all Alfred is an Engineer and Mother Mina has house duties. I can then find all of them living 194 Wollongong Road, Rockdale in 1946, her middle name is Phyllis and she is recorded as a typist.
Knowing that I think she was born in Sunderland. Then it starts to get interesting. It seems her mother and her travelled from London to Adelaide arriving June 1939. We know she was living in Australia prior. She was aged 22 so the ages align and travelling with a Mina Grey aged 51 makes it a highly likely it was mother and daughter returning together.
Do any of her works tell of moving around or of visiting the UK? Let me know if you want to dig around more. Of Bingham I think he was a Clerk with the Dept of Education, if so he was born on 28 April 1917 and worked there from 1948-1960.
Thanks very much Rach. I have some more on Mina that I was going to do for a second post on her, but I didn’t have all this. I am in Provence at the moment so will check my notes on my return. This is helpful but I just can’t remember what else I had!! I think she’s very interesting.
Oh you are my French neighbour!! I hope you have a wonderful time – where in Provence? I visited Arles and Gordes this year, I totally adored the arty chic slightly run down Arles with all its art and interesting shops. Gordes is a classic top of a hill old town which is lovely but super expensive and flooded with tourists during the day as it seems the thing to do is to stay at a fancy villa and then day trip to each town 🙂
Let me know when you have your additional notes and let me know if you ever want to collaborate on a history… no pressure, but I love going for a search!
Thanks Rach … I’m sorry I didn’t reply earlier. I got really behind with my blog. We loved Provence. We spent four nights in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, and during that time we went down to the Camargue, but also to Roussillon on Patrimony/Heritage Day. We were warned and went early. It was busy but not over-run. Gordes was one of the possibilities to visit but Roussillon sounded a bit different. We popped into Lourmarin to see Camus’ grave. We visited Arles and Avignon (which we’ve been to before) and then also, briefly Toulon, Tain l’Hermitage and Viviers. I think these are all Provence?
As for history, I sure will get back to you.
Sounds like a fantastic trip Sue! Hope the jet lag isn’t too bad.
I think I need to spend more time in Provence! I haven’t been to any of those other places you mentioned… yet! 🙂
So many places to see aren’t there Rach!
So interesting how you research these lost women;s writers.
Thanks Pam, I just wish I had more time to do more.
The thing I love about this post is that the author is basically a mystery to us; however, she was alive when I was alive for 12 years. Now that writers are encouraged to have a website and social media presence, I doubt we’ll have questions about any writer in the future, even someone who was self-published or only had one book. It wasn’t that long ago that they could be lost to obscurity, though. I wonder if in your retirement years you are interested in traveling to the towns where these authors lived and checking out the local newspapers at the libraries there. For right now, many libraries keep things locally, but you wouldn’t be able to access them from different library districts or cities. For that reason, not too long ago there was a new biography of Malcolm X, which seemed like a person who had already been researched to death, but the authors, a father and daughter duo, went to the local libraries where he had lived and found information that wasn’t widespread.
Thanks Melanie … if I had time, I would be interested to visit some of the places these authors lived in. I think for example that the Albury Museum and/or Historical Society could have something about Mina – or her husband and his family which might throw a light on what she did there. However, we are very lucky in Australia to have the TROVE newspaper digitisation service because it does lots of local newspapers as well as the big metropolitan ones. When authors lived in these smaller places they can often feature in articles because of “the local hero” or “local achiever” thing.
So, that can overcome some of the things you might find in a local library – but not necessarily what they have in their local history collections which some do really well – and which is probably the sort of collection those Malcolm X biographers might have found?
I’m guessing everything was microfiche, and I know you can contact a library and request they scan and email local information.
Whenever we visit Albury we usually pop out to the cemetery.
I will make a note of Mina Bingham’s plot number here so I can find it again the next time we visit. I’ll take a picture 🙂
Oh do, Brona … happy for you to park the plot info here! I do have a picture from the Find-a-Grave site but wasn’t sure about copyright because I think individuals upload pics there. I nearly visited it on our last trip home from Melbourne, but when I found the pic with the info I needed, I didn’t make the detour this visit.
I can’t add to your research, but I did wonder if the mother wrote that first poem. Also, the Australian Women’s Weekly published a lot of fiction back then and I wonder if you underrate its importance by saying that Gray’s story must have been a romance.
Fair comment about the mother Bill, though I wrote a little poem when I was 12 or 13, that was published in the local newspaper. It was average, but I think a young person writing in 1929 could have a “higher” language skill to one writing in the 1960s, because of what they read?
Good question/comment re The Australian Women’s Weekly. I did think quite a bit about what/how/whether to say what I wrote. I hoped that my comment suggested that these stories weren’t necessarily simply romantic. I did think that I’m not highly conversant with what The AWW did, and I believe they did aim to be more than “just” escapism. But, I’ve also noticed that most of the stories I’ve come across there in my research do have some romantic element. I’m happy to be corrected.
I’m not going to argue with you!
I did a quick search hoping someone had done a thesis on AWW. No luck. Wiki stresses “light fiction” from the beginning (and mostly sourced from England) but then supplies a list including some good Australian writers. I have in the back of my mind that someone won an AWW prize for fiction, but that’s as far as I can go.
And nor I with you. I would have thought someone had done a thesis too. It’s ripe for the picking!
As for “good writers” I guess I have a couple of comments. Good writers can write “light fiction”. Maybe that’s how they learnt their trade? Also, we could argue that “light fiction” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad fiction”. Some can lack nuance, be cliched and stereotyped but others I think can be well written with good characterisation, plot, ideas but not be heavy reading?